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The dawn of the new year means one thing in the WWE, that being the start of the Road to WrestleMania. Speaking of WrestleMania, the 2003 Royal Rumble emanated from the site of the 14th Mania, a night regarded by many as the start of the Attitude era. That era had since come and gone and a new era was on foot as thirty men were to face off on this night for the chance to headline WrestleMania XIX. Also on this night, WWE Champion Kurt Angle was set to defend his title against a man he had built up a lot of history with in Chris Benoit. Meanwhile, World Heavyweight Champion Triple H was to face the newest signee to Raw, Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner. They would be two very different types of title matches to say the least. With that said, lets get into this one.

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The opening video package is all about the Rumble match as expected, putting over the importance of the winner getting a shot at their show's title at WrestleMania. Heading into the Fleet Center we kicked off with the usual pyro. The announce teams, as always consisted of Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler from Raw, and Michael Cole & Tazz from Smackdown.

Royal Rumble Qualifying Match:
Brock Lesnar vs Big Show w/Paul Heyman
In a first in the history of the Rumble, we kick the night off with a match to determine who would fill the last vacant spot from the Smackdown brand. Interestingly enough, these two would have a rematch at the Rumble over ten years later. The issues here obviously go back to Survivor Series where Paul Heyman turned on Lesnar to cost him the WWE title, and Brock subsequently helping Kurt Angle beat Show the following month at Armageddon. At that show Kurt had seemingly taken on a new attitude, but the new champion would dodge Lesnar's challenge for a championship match the night after the PPV. Long and behold, the next week Kurt revealed his new manager, none other than Paul Heyman himself! After some initial hesitation, Show would align with Angle, but Lesnar would crash the party by dishing out a series of suplexes on both men. Kurt Angle would subsequently go back on his promise and state that he would never give Brock a shot at the title. Of course, with the Rumble on the horizon, Heyman wanted to ensure there was no way for Brock to earn a title shot that way, so he challenged Brock to a match against Big Show here, with only the winner being able to participate later in the night. As a result we kick the night off with a match where huge implications were on the line, but at the same time it was incredibly obvious that Lesnar was winning here. Show was just the foil now that Kurt had surpassed him on the heel depth chart, which was fine for the story arc that was being told. Its weird going back these days and seeing Brock as a babyface, but he got a big pop from the crowd here who were rallying behind the powerhouse that had taken the wrestling world by storm. Show gets some early control but the match is kept relatively short, with Brock coming back with a frenzy of suplexes to build up momentum. As always, Paul Heyman proves to be a factor at ringside by distracting his former client throughout the match, which ultimately leads to Brock going in pursuit. He's unable to get his hands on Heyman however, with Show cutting him off with a chokeslam for a two count. Its going to take more than that to keep Brock down though, and he gets to his feet and dispatches of the larger man with an F-5 to gain the victory at 6:29, and in the process qualifying for the Rumble while also getting a measure of revenge from Survivor Series. This was a solid opener as these two would develop some unexpected chemistry as the year progressed.Grade: **1/2

Before our first match from the Raw brand, we went backstage to Terri, standing by with Chris Jericho. Jericho vowed to win the Rumble, while also getting in some digs on Shawn Michaels whom he had started up a rivalry with in recent weeks.

World Tag Team Championship:
William Regal & Lance Storm (c) vs Dudley Boyz
We have a shift in the Raw tag title contention ranks here as the two teams eliminated early on in last month's match now face off with the gold on the line. Of course, last month at Armageddon we crowned new champions as Booker T & Goldust's long chase of the straps culminated. Their reign was brief however, as on the first Raw of the new year they were defeated by Storm & Regal, with the assistance of Eric Bischoff's new assistant, Chief Morley (formerly Val Venis). Meanwhile, the Dudley Boyz had become a thorn in the side of Bischoff's administration since reuniting, saving the Raw announce team from a Bischoff directed assault by 3 Minute Warning. Storm & Regal would cost the Dudley Boyz a subsequent match with Bischoff's enforcers, leading to this match being signed for the Rumble. What we get is a decent tag match that wasn't going to set the world on fire or anything, but it was fine for the purpose it was to serve. The crowd were into the reunited Dudleyz, so it made sense that they were pushed into the title picture now that Booker and Goldust were going their separate ways. After some initial back and forth, they manage to build some momentum, and look to be closing in on an early victory, only for Chief Morley to make his way out. Morley distracted the ref following a 3D on Storm, which allowed Regal to bring out the brass knucks. Surprisingly the interference is not effective though, as the Dudley Boyz manage to catch Regal in a 3D as well! With the ref still distracted, D-Von nails Storm with Regal's knucks and that gets the pin, making the Dudley Boyz the new champions at 7:24. A decent match, but the booking was a bit shocking here. You expected the champs would retain thanks to Morley's presence, forcing the challengers to regroup and continue their chase. Instead the title change would be used to further exemplify the abuse of power by the Bischoff Administration, as Morley would effectively render the decision meaningless the following night on Raw.Grade: **

From there we went straight into a video package chronicling the Dawn/Torrie feud, which had taken a few twists since our last show.

Torrie Wilson vs Dawn Marie
The saga continues between these ladies who have been feuding since October due to Dawn Marie's relationship with Torrie's father Al. Well, as Smackdown entered the new year, Al and Dawn would get married, with Al standing in his underwear at the altar. Tragedy would strike on the honeymoon however, as after copious amounts of sex, Al had a heart attack in bed, killing off his character. The following week we would see footage from the funeral, where Dawn would lay into Torrie, blaming her for her father's death. This led to the two ladies getting into a fight, with Dawn smashing a lamp over the grief striken Wilson. That led to this match, which was billed as the first ever stepdaughter vs stepmother match. Yeah, not everything about Smackdown was great despite the praise it earned through this stretch. Despite the cringeworthy backstory, the match here is not the mess you might have expected it to be. They knew their limitations and this was kept shorter than their previous PPV encounter at No Mercy. After some rather aggresive catfighting and cheap shots from Dawn, Torrie got her retribution by hitting a swinging neckbreaker for the win at 3:36. The feud thankfully ended here. There's not much to say. It could have been worse. They looked great at least. The women's division was one area where Raw was well ahead of Smackdown at this time.Grade: 1/2*

Backstage we see Eric Bischoff talking to Randy Orton, when Stephanie McMahon comes by. After Orton left, Stephanie said that she heard Vince was planning on firing Bischoff, following his challenge for Bischoff to shake the foundation of Raw. Bischoff assured Stephanie that he had a bombshell that would do just that, which led to Stephanie revealing she had one of her own coming that Thursday on Smackdown. We'll see what both of those were at our next show. Again, these two had solid chemistry playing off each other in their roles. From there we went to a vignette hyping the return of Sean O'Haire who we will see down the line, before going to a video package for the upcoming World title match.

World Heavyweight Championship:
Triple H (c) w/Ric Flair vs Scott Steiner
Ah here we go, the much anticipated return to the ring of Big Poppa Pump, a match which would go down as one of the more infamous in Rumble history for all the wrong reasons. As we saw back at Survivor Series, Scott Steiner entered the WWE as a heavily hyped free agent coming off his stint in WCW prior to the company closing doors. Scott Steiner would finally make his decision as to which brand he would become a part of the night after Armageddon on Raw, when he interrupted a Triple H appreciation ceremony hosted by Eric Bischoff. After being promised a World title match at the Rumble by Bischoff, Steiner signed with the Raw brand and demanded the shot then and there. Triple H would however refuse and instead said Steiner could have his match at the Rumble. In the weeks that followed, Steiner and the Game would participate in a series of challenges designed to show up one another. The first was an arm wrestling match, which Steiner would easily win after feigning a struggle. The next week, the two competed in a posedown, during which Steiner was jumped by the panel of judges who were subsequently revealed as having been paid off by the champion. Steiner would respond a week later by taking the fight to Triple H and ripping apart his suit to send a message heading into their big clash at the PPV. Knowing how Steiner's run with the company would turn out this match doesn't look like much in hindsight, but at the time it was a very big deal with Steiner seen as a major name, and he gets a big pop for his entrance here. That crowd support would be short lived however, as they would turn against him after seeing that Big Poppa Pump was incredibly out of shape. After some early domination by Steiner, vocal cheers for Triple H were heard. Considering how hated he was at this point of time, that should speak volumes. Triple H would go on offence and thats where things really slowed down and the crowd completely lost interest in the match. Flair did his best to energise the fans at ringside, but it was not enough and the whole thing just dragged on. Steiner would eventually launch into his comeback - a never ending set of horrible looking suplexes. Its clear that he is out of his depth in there, as during one suplex attempt he collapses down to the mat with Triple H as well. The action eventually goes out of the ring where Triple H is busted open in a last ditch effort to save the match, but the only thing entertaining about the match by this point was how terrible Steiner looked after being so heavily billed as a star. Steiner takes control back in the ring once more with some more belly to belly suplexes with the crowd completely booing the man they were so hot for before things got started. With Triple H not able to regain himself, he shoves the ref attempting to get disqualified, but the match continues. After another suplex, the Game tries again with a blatant low blow. After a nearfall, Triple H has enough and grabs a sledgehammer and decks Steiner, giving the challenger the win by DQ at 18:14 and the inevitable rematch next month. This match pretty much killed any credibility Steiner had as a main event guy though. He was in no shape to work a near twenty minute title match here and probably would have been served better getting back in the swing of things in the midcard and getting a shot a few months down the track. After the match Steiner attempted to regain his heat back by fighting off Triple H and putting him in the Steiner Recliner, leading to officials and Bischoff forcing him to break the hold, but the damage was done. This match stunk the joint out. At least it was entertaining in the wrestle crap kind of way due to the crowd reaction. The bad news was the feud was not over.Grade: DUD

From that mess we shift to hype for the Smackdown world title match with a video package. Yeah, I have a feeling this will be better than what we just witnessed. Just a hunch.

WWE Championship:
Kurt Angle (c) vs Chris Benoit
Our Smackdown title match sees the culmination of a rivalry that has been building since September when these two faced off in a great match at Unforgiven. They then formed an unlikely tag team and took over the tag division by storm while developing a mutual respect for each other. Then of course last month at Armageddon, Kurt Angle beat the Big Show to become WWE Champion, only to turn heel shortly after, pulling the wool over Brock Lesnar's eyes and aligni with Paul Heyman as already covered. With Lesnar out of the title picture, a new number one contender had to be crowd, and on the last Smackdown of the year, Chris Benoit defeated the Big Show to earn the right to challenge Angle at the Rumble. That same night however, Paul Heyman presented Kurt with two men to act as his back up and proteges in Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, a unit that would be known simply as Team Angle. After using his proteges for the number advantage for the weeks heading into this show, Kurt comes out with them by his side for this match, but the referee ejects them before the match can get started. Benoit gets a good reception from the fans after building quite a following over the past six months, and this definitely feels like a big match. Part of that is simply because you know when these two face off in a one on one match you are in for a treat. Add the WWE title into the picture and you are getting something special. That is exactly what happens as these two put on a classic, a true wrestling clinic that deserves to go down in history as one of the greatest title matches in Rumble history. Both men quickly wake up the crowd after the mess that preceded them and start out with some mat wrestling exchanges with the momentum shifting on countless occaisons as both men give it their best to outwrestle the other. After some opening grappling, Kurt finally takes control and works the challenger's neck over, busting out a bunch of suplex types and other maneovres as expected. Benoit attempts to come back but misses on the Diving Headbutt, leading to an Angle Slam attempt, only for Benoit to counter into a Sharpshooter. Further exchanges take place with Angle attempting another Angle Slam but this time Benoit counters into the Crossface. The champion does not tap though and the action continues. From there both men battle over their submission holds leading to Kurt succesfully hitting an Angle Slam, but it only gets two. A frustrated Kurt pulls down the straps and attempts an Ankle Lock, but Benoit rolls through and starts building momentum following a near fall of his own. After another Crossface attempt, Angle hits a second Angle Slam, but its still not enough to stop his opponent from fighting to stay in it. He gets a burst and locks in the Crossface yet again, but this time Kurt rolls through into the Ankle Lock. Benoit tries to put up a fight, but after a struggle he taps out at 19:50, allowing Kurt Angle to retain his WWE Championship. This was an excellent match that really got the show back on the right note after Triple H/Steiner fell apart. It also serves as a clear reflection of the difference between Raw and Smackdown at this point in time. A definite match of the year contender early on in 2003 as both men brought their A game as you expect these two to. Angle's reign continues as the top dog on Smackdown, but Benoit looked great in defeat here, fighting with all he had to stay in it, and he gets a standing ovation as his music plays when he leaves ringside afterwards. He'd have a shaky year after starting out great here, but his effort in this match would not go unrewarded down the line.Grade: *****

We go backstage to Rob Van Dam and Kane, who have recently started teaming up on Raw. We'll see more from them over the next couple of months. They tease eliminating each other in the Rumble, putting over the every man for himself theme. That leads us into a video package about the Rumble itself.

Royal Rumble Match:
Alright, its that time of year again. According to the rules we have two minutes between intervals this year. This is the first Rumble since the brand split which means there are 15 Raw and 15 Smackdown superstars in the match. The winner gets a shot at their show's championship at WrestleMania. The decision part that would become a key part of the road to Mania in future years was not yet around. Anyway, JR & King handle the announcing for this match exclusively. In future years they would tend to merge the commentary teams. Our #1 entrant is Shawn Michaels who had previously been named that number by Mr McMahon on Raw. The #2 entrant was also known in Chris Jericho, who had originally wanted to be number 1 (not that their is any difference) to do what Michaels did in 1995 and go the whole way as part of his recently started feud with HBK. That feud comes into play right away here, as instead of Jericho appearing for his entrance, its his buddy Christian emulating him. That allows Jericho to sneak in through the crowd and nail Michaels with a chair, busting him open as we get under way. They go at it as #3 is another Raw superstar in Christopher Nowinski, who we saw back at Survivor Series. Jericho shockingly tosses the bloody Michaels in this interval to set up the next stage of their rivalry. Meanwhile #4 is Rey Mysterio, the first Smackdown entrant in the match, having recently returned after being briefly sidelined for a few weeks. The Raw guys team up on Rey, but the odds are evened when his former partner Edge comes out at #5. He spears the two heels and starts working with Rey before they go at it due to every man being out for themselves. Speaking of former tag partners of Edge, Christian is #6. He tries to convince Edge to work with him, but Edge wants none of it and he and Rey team back up again. Next up at #7 is Chavo Guerrero, who is one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions. He takes a 619 from Rey early on, as does Christian, and Rey's momentum continues from there as he eliminates Nowinski. That's where it ends though and he gets dumped by Jericho courtesy of a clothesline. Tajiri is the next entrant at #8 and he gets a good pop from the crowd. He's still just hanging around in the cruiserweight division, but he'd have an interesting year. #9 is Bill DeMott, who we have seen briefly before during the Invasion as Hugh Morrus. He's been repackaged as a monster heel on Smackdown, but the push would be short lived and he'd end up spending more time on Velocity. The first third of eliminations is then rounded out by Raw's Tommy Dreamer at #10 who has basically become a jobber since the end of the hardcore division. He brings a bunch of weapons with him and cleans house with a kendo stick. Meanwhile Edge eliminates DeMott. Jericho and Christian work together to end Dreamer's brief stint in the match as well. Tajiri goes for a Tarantula on Y2J from there, but it proves to be too risky a move for the Rumble, as Jericho shoves the Japanese Buzzsaw to the floor.

By this point its time for #11, who turns out to be B-Squared. His brief partnership with Cena has come to an end in recent weeks after the Dr of Thuganomics blamed him for a recent tag match on Smackdown. He'd be released shortly after this show. You can tell he's on the way out as well, as he gets eliminated from the match quite quickly by Edge. Edge continued the elimination train from there as he spears Chavo off the apron to the floor. Edge and Christian start to go at it once again from there, but as they do so, Jericho sneaks up and shoves them both over to the floor, leaving him alone in the match. That gives him a few moments to regroup before Rob Van Dam makes his way to the ring as #12. After some back and forth, they are joined by Matt Hardy at #13, who has Shannon Moore by his side. By the way, Matt strongly dislikes mustard according to the Matt Fact. As the three men go at it, RVD busts out a Five Star to Jericho before Eddie Guerrero comes in as #14. He's the other half of the WWE Tag Team Champions by the way. All four men go at it, and as the next entrant is about to come out, Matt is the only man standing in the ring at the time. Thats Jeff Hardy's cue to come in at #15. Matt tries to talk him off, but Jeff goes right after his older brother, while Shannon Moore does his best to save Matt from elimination. We get a hilarious spot after Twist of Fate to Matt where Jeff goes up for the Swanton only for Moore to come in on top of Matt attempting to prevent Jeff from connecting. Jeff says to hell with it and delivers the Swanton to both men anyway. From there, Rosey of 3 Minute Warning joins the match at #16. Not a whole lot happens from there, and the now face Test is next at #17, accompanied by his manager Stacy Keibler. By the way, Test has short hair now. He almost eliminates Y2J but Jericho manages to stay in it. Up next is John Cena at #18 and he raps his way down to the ring. We get an interesting moment on commentary as JR mentions he is the future of the WWE. He was right about that one. Entrant #19 is Charlie Haas from Team Angle as the ring starts filling up again. We get another elimination though as RVD sends Jeff to the floor after he attempted a high risk move from the top. We get a big man in next as Rikishi comes out at #20 to clean house. We get a moment as he goes at it with Rosey which is fun knowing their family history.

Speaking of that family, the other half of 3 Minute Warning is next as Jamal joins the match at #21. He takes a stinkface from Rikishi after attempting to help his partner out. The heavyweights continue to join in as Kane is out at #22. He eliminates Rosey and then hits a double chokeslam to Matt Hardy and Shannon Moore. Team Angle is completed as Shelton Benjamin is #23 and he starts to work with Haas. Booker T joins the filling ring at #24 and after cleaning house he busts out the Spinarooni. His momentum continues from there and he sends Eddie packing. Back to the hosses next as A-Train is #25. He bursts out some offence as he enters the ring, but meanwhile Shawn Michaels sneaks back into the ring, still covered in blood, and he goes right after Jericho to a big pop. That allows Test to toss Jericho out, ending his near 39 minutes in the match. Test and Jericho would have a brief feud on the way to Jericho/Michaels at Mania that was supposed to get a match the following month, but as we'll see then it wouldn't happen. With Jericho irate on the outside, Michaels dives over the top onto him and they fight to the back. With that out of the way, Maven is out next at #26. He hasn't been on PPV in a while but he's now on Raw, and the announcers mention his shocking performance a year ago eliminating Taker. He's followed by Goldust at #27 who hits the Shattered Dreams on A-Train before getting eliminated by Haas. From there, Team Angle work together to eliminate Booker T, which was quite surprising considering what was waiting for him a few months later. Batista joins the match at #28 and he asserts his dominance. He was a week or two away from a major push here, but the faction I am referring to would get off to a shaky start. Anyway, Batista eliminates Test, followed by Rikishi. The big favourite is next at #29 as Brock Lesnar comes in after defeating Big Show earlier in the night. He gets rid of Haas and Benjamin, and then hits Matt Hardy with an F-5 to eliminate him as well. The final entrant at #30 is the returning Undertaker, who was hyped up as making his comeback at this show. A lot of people were expecting him to return to his old character, but he's still the biker. He eliminates Cena and Jamal, but Maven teases a throwback to last year as he tries to dropkick Taker out. He celebrates thinking he did it again, but Taker holds on and comes back with a chokeslam before eliminating Maven from the match. Fun tease. The next man to be eliminated is A-Train after some double teaming from Kane and Van Dam. From there Kane picks his partner up seemingly to slam him onto a downed Batista, but instead he tosses him over the top after the tease earlier. RVD is a good sport about it realising Kane got him.

That brings us to the final four of Brock, Taker, Kane and Batista. We get the renewal of recent rivalries (one more spectacular than the other) as Brock pairs off with Taker, while Kane does with Batista. All four end up going back at it with each other and they hit some big moves, including a Tombstone to Brock by Taker. From there, Taker clotheslines Batista out of the match. With Lesnar down, Taker and Kane tease working together, but the American Bad Ass grabs the Big Red Machine from behind and sends him out as well, guaranteeing us a Smackdown winner. Batista attempts to come back in and he goes after Taker, only for Taker to nail him with it instead. As he's getting rid of Batista again, Brock gets back to his feet and tosses Taker from behind to win the 2003 Royal Rumble at 53:41. Brock Lesnar faces the WWE Champion at WrestleMania! It was a decent Rumble with some fun spots mixed in. It was also cool to see the two brands going at it since the rosters were strictly enforced at this point in time. Brock winning was predictable, but thats not a bad thing as the storyline with Kurt was set up for Brock to earn his shot here. I was surprised by the way Brock seemed to shock Undertaker from behind, as being the big face on Smackdown a hard fought elimination would have been fine. Its not as though Taker had a huge amount going on over the first half of the coming year. Still Taker shows Brock respect afterwards by shaking his hand so that was a good way to end the show with him endorsing Lesnar's victory. I just think that final elimination should have been cleaner.Grade: ***1/4

FINAL THOUGHTS:
World title match aside, the Royal Rumble was a pretty good show. It had some solid in ring action including a match of the year candidate between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, and also had a little story development setting things up for the Road to WrestleMania. At this point its clear that Brock/Angle is on for Mania, although the weeks went on there actually became a real risk that match might not be able to take place. The Raw field on the other hand remained wide open. Obviously Triple H/Steiner was getting a rematch the following month, but after the mess on this night there was no way it was getting a headline match at Mania. In the Rumble the Raw guy that stood out the most was Jericho, but he was a heel and looked to be heading to a show stealing clash with Shawn Michaels at the show of shows. Mania was still very much up in the air at this point, but as I alluded to in the review, we'd have some major returns over the next week that we'll see at our next show in time to boost the line up. This show was just the beginning. Strap in and enjoy the ride as we head to WrestleMania XIX.

Three Stars of the Night:
1. Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit (tie) - what more needs to be said? They got the crowd back into the show after the World title match killed them off and put on a match of the year contender.
2. Brock Lesnar - Here Comes the Pain. A dominant performance against Show in the opener followed by him stamping his ticket to Mania in the Rumble. One hell of a way to cap off a rookie year.
3. Chris Jericho - had the longest performance in the Rumble match and had some cool spots where he avoided elimination. Great stuff to set up the feud with Michaels as well.

FINAL GRADE: 7 out of 10

ALL TIME PERFORMANCE TALLY:
What I do here is add the three stars of the night with each review so as to keep track of who we can say overall is the greatest PPV performer to any given time. First place scores 3 points, second 2 and third 1.